Tips for veggies on a slope?

[TheresaP]

I am working with several classes of middle school students to create a garden on our school grounds. We want to grow pumpkins. The area available to us is currently covered in kudzu, and we will be dealing with that (it will be another experiment). The land also slopes some, and we're not sure how to address that.

Does anyone have any design tips for a garden approximately 25 x 50 on a slope? We will be attempting to get volunteers to help with heavy work, the rest will be done by students. I'd love it if there is a way to handle the slope that the students could do themselves.

[The Helpful Gardener]

For veggies you are going to want to try to create level areas somehow; terracing is the age old answer in these kinds of situations but it is fairly labor intensive. Kudzu, too? Didn't they have any swampland to give you?

A daisy-chain of boulders and stone will hold a good deal of soil especially if interplanted with a groundcover like sedum or that sort of thing. A half moon of rock and either back-fill it or actually dig back into the hill above your rocks and rake it level. Be SURE that kudzu is good and dead before that or you might as well not start...

HG

[TheresaP]

Oh, we know we're going to have a time of it. But, since this is a science project, we'll be able to test different control methods and compare the results. That's the main idea behind all this. The kids will be making the decisions, recording data, research, weeding..., etc.
We'll never totally eliminate the kudzu- this is Georgia- but we can test some different control methods. I wonder if anyone nearby has some livestock they'd like to graze on our spot? apparently the deer don't eat it...

[opabinia51]

What is the slope (rise/run) of the slope that you are planning on putting this garden into?

Depending on what grade your students are in, you might want to get some of them to use a little Pytharus to figure that out. Could count for extra credits in their math class. (Hint: Use Tangent)

[The Helpful Gardener]

I am usually no fan of chemical application, but kudzu would warrant Round-up for sure. You could try the black plastic route as a control; just cut the kudzu, pull a sheet of black plastic over the area, and wait a few weeks. Works for most weeds, but this is kudzu...

Good luck

Scott